Moscow’s police prevent nationalists from joining march in memory of Boris Nemtsov

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Moscow’s police have prevented a group of about ten nationalists carrying imperial flags to join the march in memory of Boris Nemtsov who was shot dead in downtown Moscow overnight to Saturday, a TASS correspondent reported from the scene.

The group of nationalists was following in the rear of the march. They were carrying black-and-yellow flags. Some of them were wearing masks.

Policemen blocked their way and demanded they unmask. Policemen were walking beside them towards Slavyanskaya Square. No one was arrested.

The march started from the Kitai-Gorod metro station and is due to finish at Maly Moskvoretsky Bridge in the direct vicinity of the crime scene. According to the Moscow police, about 16,500 people are taking part in the march. Moscow authorities gave a permit for a procession to be attended by a maximum of 50,000 people.

People are carrying portraits of Nemtsov, Russian flags with mourning bands. The people are solemnly silent. No slogans are heard. Portraits have signs: "He fought for free Russia," "He fought for our future," as well as the core slogan of the march - "Heroes do not die, and those bullets are aimed at each of us."

Nemtsov, 55, was shot dead while walking along the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge overnight to Saturday with several shots from a handgun from a car passing by him.

He was a co-chair of the RPR-Parnas liberal democratic political party and a deputy of a regional legislature, the Yaroslavl City Duma. Nemtsov held a number of Russian government positions in the 1990s.

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case on charges of a murder and illegal possession of arms. The investigators have several theories of the murder, while not ruling out that this was a contract killing. On Sunday, the Investigative Committee asked those who witnessed the murder to contact the investigators.

Nemtsov will be buried at Moscow’s Troyekurovskoye Cemetery on March 3.